When Christina Renna of Lindenhurst was diag­nosed with a rare form of childhood cancer at the age of 14, her father Phillip Renna believed like all fathers everywhere that he could do anything to save his child. When Christina died shortly before her 17th birthday, the realization of human limitation and personal grief was almost unbear­able. Out of that trag­edy, how­ever, the Renna's are build­ing a legacy for Chris­tina to help other chil­dren beat the odds and to find a cure for childhood cancers.

"I thought I could fix anything, until the doctor said there was nothing else they could do," said Renna in recalling some of the darkest hours of his life. Each day that pediatric cancer reasearch goes under-funded the road to discovering new treatments and cures become longer, and more children die, he said. "They need the funding and we need to fight the fight on more than one front." Christina was one of four children. When she died, a foundation was set up in her name and $25,000 was donated to the Cold Spring Harbor Lab to continue research into rare childhood cancers in the hope of finding a cure. "But we need to do more," Renna said. Now, he and others have done just that. He and his son R.J. were among 130 people who flew to Washington to lobby for passage of the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2008 (HR1553). If enacted into law, it would increase the funding for the type of research taking place at Cold Spring Harbor Lab. R.J. testified before congress and told his sister's story. The bill passed the House and is now going through the Senate. But time is of the essence, said Phil Renna, because after one year, if the bill does not get through, it will be dropped. "Don't forget us," is the message said Renna, who is a longtime member of the Lindehurst School Board, where he also serves children. The bill calls for $30 million in funding over five years to continue the research that will bring hope and the cure that was not available to Christina. Also supporting the bill is CureSearch, a non-profit orga­nization

that is launching a worldwide strategic plan to conquer childhood cancer.

"The value of this investment in the lives of liter­ally thousands of American children is indisputable," said Sheri Singer of CureSearch. "Through decades of research, the cure rtate for pediatric cancer has risen from less than 10 percent in the 1950s to almost 80 percent today." Despite that, cancer is still the number-one cause of death from disease in children with more than 12,500 new cases diagnosed each year. currently there are more than 40,000 children and adolescents being treated today. For more information on the the proposed bills or childhood cancer research go to CureSearch.org. UPDATE: Congress passed the measure this week, according to the Renna family.